Disturbia
by gamerprincess13
Summary: Charmy and Marine are two different people from two different teams who have one common goal: get rid of the group who took away their loved ones. But like most goals, it's not going to be easy to reach for the two.
1. Rough Beginnings

Today in Station Square City, everybody is enjoying the wonderful weather they're having by either taking a simple stroll in the park, go shopping at the hottest boutiques according to the town's newspaper, eat outside at a local restaurant, or to just explore the city until nightfall. That's what the citizens are doing...

...All except for 6-year-old Charmy Bee who just flew through the bustling crowd, tears flowing out of his amber eyes, dark red substance on his cheeks and parts of his orange vest. As he rashly passed by the people he accidentally bumped into, he didn't turn his head around to apologize to them, oh no, he turned around to see if 'they' are still following him. But based on how crowded the streets are, Charmy let out a soft sigh of relief as he didn't see any sights of 'them' before he continued getting through the crowd as fast as he could.

Once he did, Charmy rested a bit by placing his hand on a blue post box, taking very deep breaths from flying for ten minutes straight.

Wait a minute... Tears, a dark red substance, flying for ten minutes... What's going on here? Is Charmy playing a new game?

Hell no he's not. He wishes he could play a game, but no.

So what happened to him? Simple. Charmy just witnessed the most horrifying event that ever happened to him in his entire life: Espio and Vector were murdered in front of him. That explains why there's red substa- No wait- blood on him and the tears streaming out of his eyes, one by one.

But how did Espio and Vector die?

Charmy can remember the violent memory perfectly because it happened a half-hour ago. It all started when Vector, Espio, and Charmy received a call from Bunnie, an employee from a popular cafe called 'Wild Seashells', who informed the three detectives that two wolf thieves were breaking in at a local jewelry boutique in order to get one of the Chaos Emeralds that's in there and already took care of the police. Knowing that this isn't an average store break-in, the Chaotix decided to take care of this problem personally as fast as possible. Once they arrived at the boutique, the three detectives were immediately greeted by gun bullets and knives flying past by them, barely missing them by a small margin. Espio retaliated by flinging his shurikens towards one of the thieves, hitting him in the arm, causing blood to ooze out, while Vector threw one of the knives to the other thief holding the bag with jewels, in hopes he'll drop it once he's injured.

Once Vector has successfully stabbed the wolf thief in the leg, he released the sack of jewels from his hands before yelling in pain. While the thief is trying to stop the bleeding by covering the wound with his hands, Charmy quickly flew by the two injured wolves to obtain the sack before it crashed to the marble floor.

"Yes! Vector, Espio, I got it! Look, look, look!" Charmy cheered with joy as he raised the bag high enough for his two teammates to see.

However, while Charmy is busy celebrating, one wolf thief slowly pulled out a gun from his gun holster, aiming for the young detective. Espio and Vector quickly noticed it, and rushed to the young bee, pushing him away right when the five stray bullets were shot.

Charmy landed on the hard white marble floor, with his face flat on the tiles. He slowly lifted his head up before he lifted himself up by using his arms, but as he was about half-way up, Charmy's innocent amber eyes witnessed the bullets going through Espio's stomach and both of Vector's shoulders and his upper chest before they crashed on the floor, oozing dark red blood from their lethal wounds.

"ESPIO! VECTOR!" Charmy screamed in horror as he finally got up from the floor while dropping the sack of jewels on the marble tiles in order to reach his fallen teammates.

"Charmy..." Espio weakly spoke while covering his wound with both of his hands, "You have to... leave..."

"I can't leave you guys! Never in a billion, million years!" Charmy refused, eyes starting to water.

"Ya have to, Charmy," Vector backed up with Espio before coughing off some blood from his mouth, "I mean, unless there's a hospital near us... **we're done... for...**"

"No! Don't say that! You're going to be fine! Please, please, please don't leave me alone!" Charmy begged as he held onto Espio's hand with his left and Vector's hand on the other.

"Sorry, Charmy. We can't... do that," Espio told the young bee. "But you can something."

"And that's?"

"Make sure the Chaotix lives on," both Espio and Vector said at the same time.

"And one more thing before you leave," the crocodile added, "**Run... Just run... until you're safe, Charmy. Alright?**"

Charmy nodded his head to what Vector and Espio said to him, promising the two he'll be safe. He was about to say something to them until-

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The thief shot Espio and Vector again in the stomach twice, causing blood to splatter on Charmy's cheeks and vest. After witnessing his two teammates being shot **twice**, Charmy couldn't help but cry as he lost the only thing that's close to a family. Charmy never knew who his real parents were; neither did Vector or Espio. He was found by the two in the corner of the streets, laying in a basket with a blanket, and ever since that faithful day, the two decided to raise him to become a good person. Sure, he acts like a brat sometimes, but he would always help others in need at any price. And Charmy is glad for the two for finding him...

But for the rest of his life, he's got to face the fact that Vector and Espio were dead, and that means all those small moments they did everyday were gone forever. No more pulling pranks with Vector, no more dinner made by Espio, no more movie/pizza nights every Friday night, no more watching Vector screw up his chances with Vanilla, no more trips to the park, and most importantly: No more solving cases for anyone

Charmy's sobbing came to a halt when he felt something cold touching his blood covered cheeks. He prayed to god that it's an ice pack, but his hopes were fading away as he opened his eyes to see the shooter placing a gun on him!

"Aw, don't cry little kid," the wolf said in a vicious tone. "If you miss them so much, how about you let me, Blake Weary, kill you?"

"N... no!" Charmy refused, knocking the gun off of Blake's gray-black hands before he started to fly away from the thief, storming out of the store to prevent himself from getting killed.

"God damn it," Blake muttered as he picked up his gun off of the floor and turned to his light brown furred partner, still covering his wound. "Li! Bring that sack with ya and follow me. We're going to get rid of that little bug."

"Got it, Blake," Li responded to his partner as he swiped the sack from the bloody marble tiles before exiting out of the jewelry boutique with Blake.

And besides Charmy sprinting through the city for ten minutes, that's where the event ends.

After remembering the horrible memory, Charmy slowly let his knees descend to the hard sidewalk before he burst into tears once again, hands still placed on the post box. He couldn't believe this happening to him. It's just so... so weird. When Charmy hears someone getting killed in the news, he would feel bad for the family members and their loved ones who were crying, but would eventually forget about it, thinking something like that would never happen to him in a trillion, billion years as he likes to put it. But now, it's happened to him and Charmy is doing exactly what the people did on the news.

His eyes were quickly turning all red and puffy from crying, his vision is starting to blur, his nose is stuffed like he had a cold (which he didn't), his throat ended up all dry, and his body, especially his hands and legs, were all wobbly like Jello being wiggled for a long period of time. Who knew losing Vector and Espio would effect Charmy that badly? Not him.

However, that feeling is about to fade away when Charmy suddenly heard someone screaming, "Get that little bee!" and knew it was Blake and Li who must have caught up with the six-year-old.

Charmy tried to get up from the ground, but as he got up half-way, he ended up falling back down again when Li's paw slammed hard on the post box, causing the bee to get scared from the loud noise. Blake's once again touched Charmy's cheeks again, only this time harder to the point where he can barely feel it anymore, and he closed his eyes, hoping that he wouldn't see his own blood gushing out of his mouth.

"Found you," Blake singed to the frightened six-year-old as he smiled.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Charmy cried, eyes still shut. "Just let me go!"

"Oh, I don't think that's possible, kid," Li told Charmy. "But I promise ya, you'll die in a quick and painless death if you just stop crying. Otherwise, things aren't going to be pretty."

"What do you mean by that?" Charmy questioned the two wolves.

"Just open your eyes and see for yourself."

Doing what Li commanded him to do, Charmy suddenly spotted a couple of people (about twenty to maybe fifty) who were witnessing this event, and most of them were covering their mouths or screaming "Somebody get the police!". They wanted to do something to prevent Charmy from being killed, but the fact that Blake has two guns (the other is in his holster) and Li suddenly pulling out a taser from his back pocket makes the witnesses change their mind. If they attempt to save Charmy, tons of people will die for saving a young life, and if they don't, they'll have that guilty feeling stuck in their minds for letting him die. Either way, it's a lose-lose situation, and there's nothing they can do about it unless a miracle happens right now.

Seeing the people around him completely scared, Charmy looked away from the crowd and closed his eyes before lowering his head down, knowing that there's no right path, even if he tried.

"Just kill me," Charmy silently said. "Please."

Hearing the four magic words, Blake laughed wildly for a little bit before he growled to the bee, "Alright then. Sayonara, you little-"

But before Blake had the chance to pull the trigger, his brown eyes spotted a yellow electric arrow coming towards him, causing Blake to move out of the way before he got struck by that lightning like object. While the lightning arrow missed Blake, it ended up hitting the sidewalk, creating a loud boom for everyone, even those who were slightly deaf, to cover their ears. That noise made Charmy open his eyes again and spotted Blake on the floor, with his brown eyes wide in surprise on what happened.

"Huh? Who's there?! Show yourself!" Blake demanded as he pulled his second gun from his holster, with both guns aiming towards the crowd. "Come out, you coward!"

"Chaos Spear!"

The same object that almost hit Blake struck him hard this time, falling down to the floor once the attack finished him. The attack was short, but ended up being super effective as Blake can barely move his entire body for at least two minutes.

As Charmy started to get up from the ground, he witnessed Shadow the Hedgehog entering the scene by landing on the post box with a rifle in hand, along with Rouge the Bat slowly descending next to where he is, tossing a few bombs as if there were just bean bags. Shadow then jumped off of the blue post box as he pointed his rifle towards Blake while Rouge went next to Li.

"So, are these the two thieves who not only robbed a jewelry boutique but murdered two of the Chaotix members?" Rouge asked Shadow.

"Yep," Shadow confirmed as he placed his fingers on the trigger. "And just about now, they were going to kill the youngest member of Team Chaotix."

"What?! That's just crazy! They so deserve to be punished!" Rouge exclaimed as she grabbed Li's arm before she flung him towards the post box.

"Why you little bitch!" Blake growled to Rouge for what she has done to his partner as he pointed the gun towards her.

However, Blake didn't get the chance to shoot Rouge as Shadow kicked Blake in the head hard, forcing his head down to the ground.

"I don't think so," Shadow muttered quietly before pointing the gun towards Blake's head. "Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. We'll let you go if you release all the jewelry you stole from the boutique and leave Charmy alone."

"And what if we don't?" Li asked the Ultimate Life Form.

"We'll just simply kill you and sell your body parts and weapons on eBay," Rouge calmly replied to the brown wolf as if she's done this for her entire life.

_That sounds gross, _Charmy shuttered in his thoughts on what Rouge has said.

Hearing the threat from Rouge, Blake flipped his back to the ground before snapping back at her, "You wouldn't dare!"

"Hell yes she would," Shadow backed up his partner, "So if you value your life, I suggest you get the hell out of here before I pull the trigger."

Blake was going to shoot both Shadow and Rouge, but he realized that's not going to work as he knows Shadow is the Ultimate Life Form and Rouge would easily kick his ass since she threw Li with no problem. Not to mention that there's no way he'll defeat the two, even with Li by his side. Knowing that he has no choice right now, Blake dropped both of his guns to the floor, and started to walk away from the crowd, along with Li who's trying to catch up to his partner.

Once the two wolves were gone, everybody who witnessed this event started to cheer for Shadow and Rouge as they saved an innocent life and retrieved the stolen jewels. While Rouge waved to the people, Shadow ignored them and started to walk towards Charmy, now fully off the ground. But even after this horrifying experience was over, Shadow still spotted Charmy's eyes full of tears that are ready to burst out any minute. Shadow knew that Charmy looked up to him as a role model, and the six-year-old thought that if he cried in front of him, the Ultimate Life Form would think of him as weak. But Shadow wouldn't do that to Charmy. Instead, he wiped off Charmy's tears with his hands while placing his free hand on the top of the bee's head.

"Shadow," Charmy can only say on what his role model is doing.

"It's over, kid," Shadow told the six-year-old. "You're alright."

"But... But Espio and Vector were... were..." Charmy didn't complete his sentence and ended up breaking into tears once more, stuffing his face into Shadow's white chest fur. Remembering Vector's and Espio's death was enough, but mentioning it is just too much for Charmy. Hell, what happened today is too much torture for the young bee! He just wants this day to end, even though it's only one o' clock in the afternoon.

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay," Shadow attempted to calm down the sobbing bee. "Even though your teammates might not be with you, they'll watch you in heaven."

"R-really?" Charmy questioned Shadow, lifting his head out of his chest.

"Yeah. Even though you can't see heaven, it exists. I'm positive. Some of my friends are in there as well." Friends meaning Professor Gerald Robotnik and Maria; especially the latter.

"So Vector and Espio are going to be safe?"

"Yes," Shadow answered to Charmy's question. "And speaking of which, Rouge and I need to think of a place where you can stay. And obviously, there's no way in hell we're sending you to an orphanage."

Charmy could only sigh in relief on what Shadow had said. Most orphanages in Station Square are usually small, dirty, and have some vicious kids with serious problems. Thank god he's not going there.

"So where are you going to take me to?" asked Charmy.

"I have no idea as of now," Shadow honestly replied to the bee before he turned to Rouge, currently carrying the bag of stolen jewelry. "Rouge, do you know a place where Charmy could-"

"Stay? Well, my place, of course!" Rouge answered to Shadow before he can finish his sentence. "I mean, I have over five bedrooms that are empty, so I don't mind having this little kid living with me."

As a freelance government agent, Rouge lives in a very fancy condominium called "Golden Fire" after the events of the ARK, and most of the time, she offers people to stay with her for a while. Rarely, do people stay with Rouge fully as a member in her luxurious home, and the only person who lives in there besides Rouge herself was Shadow as he doesn't want to hop to one place to the other like Sonic does.

Rouge turned her head to Charmy, and asked him, "So, do you want to stay with me?"

"Uh..." Charmy had to think about it before answering to Rouge's question. Obviously, he can't live alone in his old place with Vector and Espio gone, and he doesn't want to be stuck in a crappy orphanage or in the cold streets every day until he dies. Eventually, Charmy made up his mind and told the bat, "Sure. I can stay with you."

"Alright! I knew you wouldn't refuse my offer!" Rouge cheered with glee.

"However..." Shadow said as Rouge was in the middle of celebrating.

"However...?" Charmy repeated the last word from the ebony hedgehog.

"You can stay at Rouge's place on one condition."

"Shadow, what are you planning?" Rouge wondered as she knows Shadow never does this to anyone.

"You'll see," Shadow whispered back to Rouge before facing Charmy.

"What's the condition? I want to know!" Charmy demanded to Shadow.

"Okay," but before Shadow can tell Charmy the condition, he took a deep breath and said, "You can stay **if you become a member of Team Dark.**"

Right when Shadow said the last eight words coming out of his mouth, Charmy doesn't know what to say. His role model asking him if he can be part of his team in exchange of living with Rouge is just unexpected yet amazing! Charmy dreamed he can fight alongside with Shadow one day, but he didn't think he would be part of Team Dark at all! The chances of that happening are one in a million!

"R... Really? You mean it?" Charmy slowly said to Shadow.

"Yes," Shadow nodded his head, "If you're going to keep on living, then I truly believe that you should continue what you've been doing with your old teammates."

"And that's kicking bad guy's butts!" Rouge added.

"But what about Ome-"

Knowing Charmy is going to say Omega, Shadow cut in and informed him, "He wouldn't mind, even if he's with us right now."

"What happened to him?"

"Got into an accident during our last mission."

As in, Omega nearly gotten destroyed from a powerful bomb while attempting to catch a wanted criminal that escaped from prison. He's currently getting repaired back at GUN Headquarters, though the damages are heavy that Omega might not make it unless they do another option they haven't done in years.

"But enough about Omega," Shadow shook that thought from his head, "Right now, Rouge and I wants to know if you'll accept this offer or not."

_"Make sure the Chaotix lives on."_

With the final words from his old teammates and Shadow's offer stuck in his mind, Charmy decided, "Yes. I'll be part of Team Dark."

"Yea! Welcome to Team Dark, Charmy!" Rouge cheered as the bee accepted the offer. "I promise, you'll never regret this decision. Right, Shadow?"

"Your right, Rouge," Shadow agreed with the ecstatic bat, "This is one of best choices you've made."

"Thanks," Charmy smiled to Shadow and Rouge as he fully got up from the ground.

"No problem. Now let's get going to the jewelry boutique."

"How come?" Rouge and Charmy questioned Shadow.

Shadow only responded by pointing to the sack Rouge is still carrying as he started to walk away from the two.

"Aw, come on Shadow! Can't we at least keep one thing from this sack?" Rouge pleaded to her partner, not wanting to let go of the jewelry, even if they were stolen.

"No," Shadow bluntly answered.

"Not even if it's a Chaos Emerald?"

Once Shadow heard the words 'Chaos Emerald', he suddenly stopped walking and turned to Rouge, currently pulling out a red Chaos Emerald from the sack. He face-palmed himself for forgetting the fact that the reason why Blake and Li broke into the boutique in the first place was to obtain one of the Emeralds while collecting a few jewelry for themselves. Whenever Shadow spots a Chaos Emerald, he'll take without any second thought. But this time, however...

"We'll keep it, but Charmy gets this one. Clear?" Shadow told the two.

"Crystal," Rouge nodded her head as she handed the red Emerald to Charmy before she started to walk again with Shadow.

Right when Charmy obtained the Emerald, he wondered why Shadow would give it to him instead of himself or Rouge; especially the latter as she would do anything for those Emeralds. But after remembering the events that happened in the course of almost an hour, he realized that it serves as a reminder of this day. The day where he witnessed Vector and Espio getting murdered in front of his eyes, the day where he almost gotten killed by Blake and Li, the day Shadow and Rouge saved his life, and the day he joined Team Dark.

As of today, this is the new beginning of Charmy Bee.

* * *

_**Your mind's in Disturbia, it's like the darkness in the light**_

_**Disturbia, am I scaring you tonight**_

_**Disturbia, ain't used to what you like**_

_**Disturbia, disturbia**_

_-_"Disturbia" by Rihanna

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, here's a surprise for you guys: another story by me! This time, it's an action story starring Charmy Bee and Marine the Raccoon, though she will appear later in this story. Like Escape from The City, I wanted to have different characters for this story, and when I saw that there weren't that many Charmy and Marine stories, I thought I can write one for the two of them. **

**And this chapter serves as the prologue for the story. Starting next chapter, the story will take place several years in the future, where the main plot takes place.**

**If you like this chapter, please leave a review.**

**Later! ;D**

**(And I promise to update my other stories.)**


	2. The New Age

_~8 years later~_

Alarms echoed all over the inside of the bank, along with the red lights flashing everywhere as a male leopard dressed in a black shirt and pants fired a few bullets to the cops who were doing to same thing as him. Unfortunately, the cops ended up getting shot in the arm, dropping their pistols to the white tiled floor in order to cover up the blood already staining their blue sleeves.

With the cops distracted, the leopard made his escape from the bank by exited through the double doors, carrying a sack full of cash he stole from the safe at the back of the bank. But he just didn't just stole piles of cash, oh no. He also obtained a white Chaos Emerald as well! Why would he steal it in the first place? To add to his collection of riches in his place? Use it as a power source to a device that intends to destroy everything? Who knows, but the only thing that matters to the leopard is that he got it and he's able to use it to whatever he pleases.

And the best part, no one can stop him...

That is until he spotted two members of Team Dark next to a bakery, holding out their pistols that's pointing to the leopard. And those two members were Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat. The leopard knew that for a fact, even if the two looked different despite not seeing them for a long time.

Shadow grew a little taller, about 4'1ft, has a few small black and red quills growing at the back, and now sports a white sleeveless shirt with a black biker jacket, ripped pants, fingerless gloves, but he still kept his black and red air shoes.

Rouge on the other hand, had her hair longer (but it reached to her shoulders), bat wings a lot larger, and only grew to be 3'9 ft, though she ditched her spy suit (and gloves) for a purple and magenta midriff top with a black vest, purple shorts with a belt with a gold heart, three pink studded diamond on her right ear, white and black boots, and a pink headset.

Just the sight of the two not only made the leopard drop his gun and the old sack to the ground but caused him to tumble backwards, landing on his back.

"Ow ow ow..." he muttered while rubbing the back of his head before he witnessed Shadow moved his pistol closer to the leopard's face.

"Surprise to see us?" Shadow questioned the frightened thief.

"N... no..." he lied while stumbling. Of course, he's afraid, but he didn't want to admit it to them.

"Oh, now don't lie to us sweetie," Rouge told the thief as she brought her pistol towards his chest, "It's okay to be afraid of us. We're used to it anyway. Right, Shadow?"

"Right," Shadow agreed with Rouge, "Now, bring us the sack or we'll have to handle things the hard way."

"What's the hard way?" asked the leopard.

Once the thief finished asking his question, two more figures jumped out of the dark corner between the bakery and a post office before they attacked the thief by kicking him hard on the chest, knocking him to a slightly rusty payphone. As the thief slowly tried to get back up, he caught a glimpse of his two attackers. One was a hedgehog like Shadow, only his fur was dark gray, spikes were styled with a mix from both Shadow and Sonic, and had red, black, and gray armor on his left, and his right arm were metallic. The other was a bee who's close to Shadow's height is wearing an orange vest that's unzipped, revealing a black shirt with a bee necklace that has a red shiny stinger, orange army pants, black Converse, and a bracelet on his left arm that reads 'Chaotix'.

The leopard knew who they were: Omega and Charmy.

Wait... Why was Omega a hedgehog in the first place?

After the bombing incident that happened to Omega, his original, robotic body was unable to be repaired, so GUN operators decided to use a machine that transforms robots into Mobian beings like Shadow and Rouge. However, it's still was in it's development stage at that time and Omega was actually the first to test it out to see if it works. Luckily, it worked but he wasn't fully Mobian as he had some of his original armor on the left, a metallic arm (can transform into a few different type of guns) on the right, and had rocket boosters on the bottom of his shoes. Still, at least he was living, working with Shadow and Rouge for the past eight years.

Like now by stopping a criminal stealing a Chaos Emerald.

"This is the hard way," Omega replied in a mid-deep voice instead of a robotic voice while his hand transformed into a Gatling gun. "Do as Shadow tells you or face the worst pain of your life."

"Uhhh..." the leopard wanted to answer 'Hell no', but if he does, he'll have to face the Ultimate Life Form, a 26-year-old bat who can kick ass while looking sexy at the same time, a half-robot and half-Mobian with who-knows-how-many weapons, and a 14-year-old bee with a nasty stinger. One thief with a gun versus four powerful members of Team Dark equals total pain for the leopard.

"Come on! Answer already!" Charmy demanded the thief. "Or do I need to make you?"

"Please don't! Please, please, please!" the leopard begged to the bee while letting tears flow out of his eyes.

"Too late now, sucker."

Charmy grabbed the leopard's arm and flung him towards a trashcan near the bakery before the bee ran to the thief and kicked him in the stomach hard at least five times. Hard enough for the thief to spit out his own blood to the ground.

"Stop... it..." the thief pleaded in hopes he won't get injured severely. "I'm begging ya... Stop..."

"No," Charmy simply answered to him as he kicked him in the stomach again.

"Why?"

"The kid didn't hear you say 'please'. That's why," Shadow told the thief. "Now, say please and we'll let you go. Alright?"

"Like in hell... I would..."

"Alright then. Charmy, toss the little kitty to us. We'll take care of him," Shadow ordered the bee.

"Okay," Charmy agreed, grabbing the thief's arm once again before throwing him to where Shadow, Rouge, and Omega are with weapons at their hands.

Once he spotted the sights of their weapons, the thief gave out a scream before he cried out, "Don't shoot me! Please! Please!"

"Fine," all three of them said as they tossed aside their weapons, minus Omega as his gun transformed back to his hand. The leopard sighed in relief as he's not going to get hurt.

Or so he thought as Shadow ended up kicking him in the groin area, causing the thief to scream in agony. But the pain didn't stop there, oh no. Rouge then stomped on his right hand with her boot, making him scream even more as the heel in her boot was super sharp.

"Had enough, big boy?" Rouge asked the thief as she twisted her boot side to side to cause more pain, and if she's lucky, pierce her heel on his hand.

"Yes!" the leopard answered before he bit his lip hard to prevent himself from screaming more in front of the members of Team Dark. "Just make it stop!"

"We will until you give us what we need."

"Like I wou-" he paused mid-sentence as he witnessed Omega's hand transforming into a black taser and his arm is already rushing towards the thief without any warning, electrocuting the thief on the chest before Omega stopped once he spotted the thief coughing out more blood than before.

"Now will you do as we say?" Omega questioned the tortured thief, or victim at this point.

"I'd rather... die... than go... to... prison..." the thief breathed out to Omega.

"Are you sure about your decision?"

"Hell yeah..."

"Well, big mistake!" Charmy explained as he grabbed the thief's neck before he lifted him up on one hand and held an army knife on the other, close to the thief's neck. "If you want to die so badly, you'll die in a slow and painful death. That's what people like you deserve."

"I... don't... deserve..."

"Yes. You. DO!" Charmy screamed at him, putting emphasis on the last word. "Now, I'll ask you again. Give us the sack or I'll slit your throat slowly until you-"

But before Charmy can finish his death threat, the leopard pleaded to the bee, "Okay, okay, okay! You guys win! I'll give you the sack! Just leave me alone!"

"That's what I like to hear," Charmy smiled as he dropped the thief to the ground.

And just as the short violent conflict ended, sirens roared from where Charmy is, and he knew that the police are arriving to the scene where Team Dark surrounded the criminal before he can get away. The sirens ended once the black and white cars parked close to the bakery, where the police exited out of the car and spotted the criminal coughing out blood from the injuries caused by the members of Team Dark.

"Is this the one who robbed Station Square Bank?" one of the officers asked Charmy.

"Yes. Yes he is," Charmy confirmed the officer. "Take him away, sir."

"Alright."

Two more officers arrived to lift up the criminal off the ground as he's in no state to get up on his own before they handcuffed him and guided him to the back of the police car. Once the door was shut, the police car drove away from the bakery to the police station, where the leopard will be locked up in jail for who knows how long.

After all of the police cars left, the members of Team Dark were left alone in this area, minus the sack the criminal used to keep all of the money and the Chaos Emerald. Rouge walked to the sack and grabbed it before opening it to grab the white Chaos Emerald out of the sack.

"That was too easy," Rouge commented as she turned the emerald in various of angles to admire its beauty. "Isn't that right boys?"

"Yeah it is," Shadow agreed with Rouge as he snatched the white emerald from the bat while grabbing the sack full of cash. "I'm going to send this back to HQ for safe keeping."

"How come? Shouldn't we keep it?"

"We already have one, Rouge. Remember?"

Right. Charmy has it. The red Chaos Emerald Charmy obtained is currently the stinger on his necklace so he'll have it with him at all times.

"Oh, fine then," Rouge sighed in disappointment as she didn't get to keep the Chaos Emerald. "But the next one we find, we're keeping it. Alright?"

"No problem," said Shadow before he shouted, "Chaos Control!" and vanished away to GUN HQ.

With Shadow gone for a moment, that leaves Rouge, Omega, and Charmy still standing, wondering what they're going to do after that little problem was finally resolved. While Rouge had no idea, Omega and Charmy have an idea what they're going to do. It usually happens after every mission. What's that idea anyway?

"Rouge, do you think we can stop by at the Sweet Shack on our way back for milkshakes?" Omega asked the bat.

"Seriously? But we just had lunch an hour ago," Rouge refused Omega's request for milkshakes.

"It's not enough for me."

Apparently, once Omega gained his new body eight years ago, he needed to eat food like regular people in order to survive instead of charging up back at HQ. At first, he didn't like food such as sandwiches, pancakes, ice cream, and cereal since his taste buds haven't fully developed once he first got his new form. But after three days, he can finally taste foods the way they're suppose to taste to everyone else. Everything from sweet, sour, spicy, and bitter. Overtime, Omega have grown to become a huge eater and hates it when people waste food (when they're full at least) as he sees food as an important part of life. If he sees people throwing away good food, Omega will attack them and give them a lecture on not wasting food or they'll die. It doesn't happen too often, about once or twice a month, but Shadow, Rouge, and Charmy tries to prevent Omega from going ballistic to a stranger throwing away food.

Since Omega doesn't like throwing away any food, he has tasted tons of different types, ranging from a chili dog (thanks to Sonic) to peppermint ice cream to even the spiciest pepper known to man. But after tasting so much food ever since he obtained his new body, his favorite food of all time is, like he mentioned to Rouge, milkshakes since it's the first food he liked once his taste buds developed fully.

"Come on, Rouge. Please?" Omega begged Rouge. "We should have something delicious after capturing the criminal."

"Err... I don't know..." Rouge said, still unsure about this.

"Hey. It can be our reward," Charmy told Rouge, hoping she would say 'yes' after she didn't get the Chaos Emerald. "And besides, I heard the Sweet Shack is serving up your favorite flavor today: chocolate raspberry."

Oh, that got her. If jewelry is her most favorite thing, then chocolate is the second best thing to her as it looks and tastes great. And it doesn't matter if it's cake or chocolate covered mangoes, she'll eat it. It's one of the few things she can never give up, even if she tried. Other things include jewelry (duh), flying, and a certain somebody she had her eye on for a while.

After thinking about it for a while, Rouge sighed and answered to Charmy and Omega, "Sure. Let's go to the Sweet Shack."

"Yea! Milkshakes, milkshakes, milkshakes!" both Charmy and Omega singed out for joy as they started walking to the restaurant known for it's mouth-watering sweets.

_Oh, you two. Mature in the field, and once they're off, they act like kids, _Rouge thought as she witnessed them singing their milkshake song. _Can't help it though. They're kids at heart._

It's true. Just like his growing liking of food when he obtained his new form, Omega slowly developed a new personality that's different from his old one. Back then, Omega was emotionless but loyal to his teammates and will destroy anything that can be considered as a threat. Now, while he kept his loyalty and is still destroying any threats, Omega is curious. Extremely to be exact. Yes, there's his curiosity of how food tastes, but he's curious on why people fall in love, how perfume is made (blame Rouge), how a country is formed, and the list can go on for hours. Wait... Days. Let's go with that.

As for Charmy, his personality over the past years have changed. Sure, he's still childish as he sometimes talks too much, pulls pranks on Rouge (with the help of Omega and oddly Shadow), and he still can't stay still for more than two minutes whenever something boring is going on. Despite this, he's no longer the same Charmy he was before. He's no longer running away from dangerous situations unless he has to by Shadow, he's no longer crying whenever his teammates are injured a little bit, and he's no longer a joke when it comes to solving cases. Also, Charmy doesn't have to rely on only his stinger but he's able to fight properly thanks to the combined efforts by Shadow and Rouge, not to mention to utilize various of weapons ranging from grenades, guns, and swords, though he personally likes to use the army knife as it's light and is an unexpected weapon for a GUN agent.

And his ideals of criminals, minor and major, hasn't changed a bit. Back when he was with Vector and Espio, they always believed that every criminal should die in the most horrifying death anyone can think of (but not right away, of course). It still applies today, just like with the thief that just ended up being arrested by the police. Speaking of which, Charmy wishes that the criminal would slowly rot in jail. That's one less trouble he has to deal with. More trouble than-

Nah. He shouldn't think about 'them'. Especially when he's about to get milkshakes after a successful mission.

* * *

~Golden Fire: Rouge's Condominium (13:30)~

After stopping by the Sweet Shack to pick up four milkshakes (Charmy has peach, Omega has strawberry, Rouge has the flavor Charmy mentioned: chocolate raspberry, and plain vanilla which could be for Shadow), the three members entered Rouge's condominium once the door was unlocked. If someone were to describe the size of Rouge's place, they would most likely say it's about three hotel rooms combined. Three five-star hotel rooms to be exact. Hell, it's designed like one!

The living/dining room had three white sofas with red and pink pillows, a glass coffee table that has a blue vase with red, purple, and orange carnations, a 32 inch flat screen TV hanging on the white walls that's at least ten inches away from the sofas, a small white chandelier hanging above the coffee table, and ten feet away from the entertainment section is a six foot glass dining table with white and red seats. The kitchen had its walls with light blue and black tiles on there, the counter made with black marble, the cabinets were made out of dark brown wood, and the oven, microwave, dishwasher, and sink were silver; very shiny to be exact. A few feet away from the living/dining room was a small spiral of stairs that obviously leads to the second floor where it has two master rooms (both of them belonging to Rouge and Shadow), at least five bedrooms (two of which Charmy and Omega owned), and one bathroom with no shower since most bedrooms have a bathroom that has a shower and bathtub.

Rouge's place is damn fancy. Only those with top jobs can live in a place like this. And Rouge's job as being part of a well known agency is enough for her to live here, along with Shadow, Omega, and Charmy.

Now that their little mission is over, Charmy placed his milkshake on the coffee table before he plopped down on the sofa and grabbed the remote control to turn on the TV, currently on the news channel. Well, at least it wasn't stuck on those annoying education shows or worse, poorly made cartoons today. When Charmy was six, he didn't mind laughing at the stupid jokes he found funny (burps, farts, someone getting hurt and ended up being fine in the end, etc.), but that was back then. Now, the only interesting things on television Charmy liked to watch was the news (mainly Central World News; CWN for short), crime shows (tons of them), and a show called "The Big Bang Theory"; the only show where every member of Team Dark enjoys.

The television currently showed a female red fox wearing a white buttoned shirt and what appeared to be blue jeans informing the viewers about the latest news that's happening this afternoon. And it's not about the thief Charmy encountered about an hour ago.

_"...At approximately 12:17 P.M," _the reporter started, _"Two females, both sixteen years old, were brutally murdered at Emerald Beach by Blake and Li; two members of the most dangerous gang in the world: __**The Black Claws**__."_

The Black Claws. That name made Charmy clench his teeth and tightened his hands into fists. Why? Easy. The two that murdered Vector and Espio eight years ago, Blake and Li, were part of that dangerous group mentioned by the news. That group is infamous for breaking into numerous of places such as banks, museums, and upper-class homes, murdering anyone while wearing a sly smile on their faces, and kidnapping kids, forcing them to forget their loved ones and transform them into ruthless assassins. Why they were doing this is currently unknown, but whatever their reason, Charmy will be sure every member will get what they deserve.

Rouge was about to go to her room to take a hot shower, but halted when she saw the TV screen showing the crime scene at the beach where there she can see blood, dying the brown sand to dark crimson. Luckily, the screen didn't show the bodies due to the fact that the news people thought that kids might be watching this at home.

"Oh, my god," Rouge can only say as she spotted the gruesome scene. "That's just horrible."

"I know," Charmy agreed with the ivory bat. "I wonder when we'll put an end to them."

"Who knows. But I'm positive that one day, we'll find their hideout and take down The Black Claws once and for all. That's everyone's wish."

The hideout to The Black Claws hasn't been known, but according to the news a few years ago, their location is either near Mystic Ruins, Station Square, or Central City; a city that's about two hundred miles away from Station Square.

"Hope so. And if we do, I want to get rid of Blake and Li with my own hands," Charmy told Rouge.

"Of course you will," Rouge replied back to Charmy while taking a zip of her milkshake. As she was doing so, she looked at the time on the clock that's on the kitchen and groaned when she read it. "God, where the hell is Shadow? It doesn't take him a half hour to deliver something to HQ!"

"But it's a Chaos Emerald, Rouge. So maybe he's discussing with the General about what to do with it."

"Probably in a highly secured place," Rouge guessed as her eyes were facing back to the news, where it's now showing a dirty blond cat being interviewed by the news casters.

_"It was just horrible... Just horrible..." _the cat started as tears are falling from her eyes. _"I was with my two best friends when these two nasty wolves attacked us, though they mainly aimed for my friends. I only managed to get cut in the arm by them, but my friends had it worse."_

_ "If possible, can you describe what they did to your friends?" _a reporter off-screen asked the cat.

_"Well... The two, I believe they were called Blake and Li, held out their guns, pointing at my friends' heads, demanding them to hand over their necklaces to see if they had something called a Chaos Emerald. They said no, so in response, the two wolves shot them multiple times before they took the necklaces off of them. And... the worst part... Blake and Li killed them for nothing as they didn't have the Chaos Emeralds! This is... is..." _the cat ended up crying in front of the camera, slowly letting her knees fall to the hot sand that's mixed with some blood.

"I can't believe it," Rouge commented as she placed both hands over her mouth.

"Yeah. They killed those two girls just for a Chaos Emerald," Charmy said as he grabbed his milkshake. "How sick."

"I agree," a new voice popped into the conversation.

Curious as who said it, Charmy and Rouge turned around to see Shadow, causing the latter to almost drop her milkshake on the cream marble floor.

"Shadow! Don't scare me like that again!" Rouge reminded the ebony hedgehog. "Where did you come from?"

"I used Chaos Control to get into my room," Shadow simply explained to Rouge before his red eyes trailed down to her drink. "Rouge, why do have a milkshake?"

"Omega wanted one. That's why."

"Really?"

"I was going to refuse until Charmy persuaded me to get one!"

"Hey!" Charmy yelled to the ivory bat. "The only reason I persuaded you to get milkshakes at the Sweet Shack is because I was thirsty after the mission!"

"Seriously?!" Rouge exclaimed in shock. "You had a bottle of water before we left!"

"But with all the running and fighting I did, I really wanted something sweet to drink! And I'm sure you feel the same way, along with Omega and Shadow."

"He has a point," Shadow backed up the fourteen year old bee. "I honestly didn't have anything to drink since this morning."

Rough sighed in defeat as she slumped on the couch after Shadow finished explaining to her. She didn't want to say anything else as she had to admit, she felt a little thirsty after capturing the thief.

"By the way, did you get me-" Shadow was about to ask Charmy until he was cut off with Omega running out of the kitchen to the living/dining room to hand his teammate a vanilla milkshake.

"Yes we did," Omega answered to Shadow. "And we didn't know what flavor you like, so we decided vanilla as it's the most likable flavor in there. So drink it."

"Thanks, Omega." Shadow said as he took a zip of his white drink while taking a seat on the couch.

"By the way, what took you so long at HQ?" Charmy asked his role model.

"Well, the general and I were discussing about the Chaos Emerald that was stolen from the bank," Shadow started as he waited for Omega to sit next to Charmy, "And I even told him what the thief looked like. After describing the thief, the general took a search of him based on the description I gave him, and it turns out the thief, who's named James, is working for **The Black Claws**."

"No way!" the three members said in surprised.

"So what happened next?" Charmy eagerly asked Shadow.

"Once we figured out James' background, the general decided that we should have a meeting tomorrow afternoon at 14:00 at HQ in order to discuss how we're going to find their hideout. Not to mention how we're going to protect the Chaos Emerald from 'them'," Shadow informed the three members, putting emphasis on 'them' (the Black Claws).

"How come we didn't thought of that before?"

"Because back then, they just started off as a small group who weren't that much of a threat," Omega explained to Charmy before the half robotic hedgehog turned his head to Rouge, signaling her to speak.

"And over the past eight years, the number of members has increased, from just ten to thousands. Now, that group can't be fooled due to the numerous of crimes each member has committed; from murder to robbery," Rouge continued from where Omega left off.

"Right. As of now, their main objective is to take all seven Chaos Emeralds, and they'll do anything to get them. Even if it means ripping the world apart," Shadow concluded before taking a zip from his drink.

Charmy took a look at his necklace that's containing the red emerald and gulped hard after imagining what The Black Claws would do to him before taking his necklace. Shoot him in the stomach? Stab him multiple times? Throw him off on a cliff near the ocean? Okay, the last one seemed stupid, unless one of the members knew how to swim, but these possibilities were enough to make Charmy sick.

"Because of the increased members of The Black Claws, we decided that we should stop them as soon as possible before they obtain all seven Emeralds," Shadow added. "Who knows what they could do with them."

_Obviously something horrible, _Charmy guessed in his thoughts.

"Everybody got the plan for tomorrow? We're meeting at GUN HQ at 14:00. Everybody has to attend. No exceptions," Shadow told his teammates the plan. "Understand?"

"Affirmative, Shadow," said Omega.

"Roger," Rouge chimed in, giving a wink to the black hedgehog.

"No problem!" Charmy yelled in agreement.

"Good. Now-"

As Shadow was about to get off from the couch, he accidentally tripped on the leg of the coffee table, making him fall to the tiled floor. Not only that, he let go of the vanilla milkshake and it spilled the sweet drink on there as well. In front of Omega.

"Aw crap," Shadow muttered, knowing he pissed off Omega for wasting his favorite food.

Omega jumped out of the couch before he shouted to the ebony hedgehog, "SHADOW! HOW DARE YOU SPOIL A GOOD MILKSHAKE!"

"Omega, it was an-"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"

"It is! I just tripped and I wasn't able to catch it on time!"

"LIAR!" Omega wasn't buying Shadow's 'lies' and his right hand has transformed into a Gatling gun.

Seeing this, Rouge and Charmy grabbed Omega's hand and moved it away from Shadow, and themselves, to prevent any violence coming from their own home.

"Omega! Put the gun away, now!" Rouge demanded the angered half-robotic hedgehog.

"Yeah! Just calm down for God's sake!" Charmy told Omega. "There's no need for violence just because Shadow dropped his milkshake!"

"But... but..." Omega said as he tried to fight off the hands of Charmy and Rouge.

"Now!" Shadow, Rouge, and Charmy demanded to Omega.

Once Omega's right hand went back to normal, the three members sighed as this minor problem has been quickly solved. Thank god.

For eight years, Charmy has to deal with the crazy mission GUN sends him to, the criminals that are just messed up in the head, and living with Team Dark. Sure, there weren't a lot of arguments going on, but most of them ended up with Omega almost shooting someone just because of wasted food or Shadow threatening to use Chaos Spear inside.

And he handled them just fine. As long as he had people who would look after him and kept the promise he made to Vector and Espio before their deaths, Charmy is happy with this life.

So much.

* * *

_I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones_

_Enough to make my systems blow_

**_Welcome to the new age, to the new age_**

**_Welcome to the new age, to the new age_**

_I'm radioactive, radioactive_

-"Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons

* * *

**Author's Note: Now the story begins. And as we look into Charmy's new life with Team Dark, we're going to shift off to the next main character: Marine! What's going on with her, who knows? **

**Oh, and this is my first time writing Omega in a fanfic, and I decided that Omega should be half-robot, half-hedgehog because I haven't seen too many fanfics where Omega is this. And the idea of Omega liking milkshakes is inspired by SonicSong182's videos "Ask the Sonic Heroes" where Omega loves milkshakes (so cute!).**

**Also, the times in this story (how it will be read) will be different as it's a crime story. There's twenty-four hours in a day, so 14:00 means 2 PM and 0:00 simply means 12 AM, or midnight. Just a little note if you got confused.**

**Anyway, if you liked this chapter, please leave a review!**

**Later! ;D**


	3. Babylon Rogues

~Central City (23:15)~

With the skies completely black and filled with silver stars in various of sizes and the full moon, night time has fell upon the streets of Central City. In here, people would go to sleep in order to be full of energy once morning hits, leave their homes in order to attend their night jobs, stay up late in order to get something completed or because they feel like it, or some people would use night time as an opportunity to escape their homes and go out to the clubs/bars to dance, have a few laughs with drunken friends, get wasted, and... do other things people do in there. That's how most nights should be. ...But not always. Some people use night time as a time to cause destruction to others when they least expected.

Like right now in a small house where one of the windows ended up being broken, some of the shattered glass pieces falling to the yellow-green grass. Obviously, somebody didn't throw a random object at the house on accident. It was on purpose. But for what purpose?

"STOP IT!"

Inside of the house, a young white fox girl is screaming in fear as she watched a brown wolf with a scar on his left leg beating up her parents with a baseball bat multiple times. She thought they were going to be fine and her dad would put up a fight against him, but once she spotted blood oozing out of their bodies, that imaginary fight seemed impossible at this rate. She knew she had to stop this 'monster' from beating up her parents, but she can't since she's afraid that she'll be just like her parents: beaten until they lose over tons of blood. And calling the police for help isn't a good option, unless a nearby neighbor did so due to the loud smashing noises. Either way, she's screwed no matter what option she chose.

The young girl eventually curled up into a small ball, shaking in fear as she couldn't take this anymore. She just wishes this is just a bad dream and will be back in bad, seeing her parents at the dining table eating scrambled eggs and toasts in the morning.

But it's not. She won't get that future as the 'monster' is slowly heading towards the little girl, deviously laughing as he clenched his baseball bat tighter on both of his hands.

"Don't worry, little girl," the thief said, getting closer to his victim, "I'll make sure you'll be the same as your mommy and daddy. I'm sure you won't mind it. Right?"

"Uh..." The words she wanted to say was 'No way', but she's too afraid to say them, fearing he'll smack her worse than both of her parents.

"Well then, I guess I'll send you to the hospital myself."

The thief lifted up his baseball bat as high as he can before he swing the bat down to the girl's head. But all of a sudden, the bat vanished out of his hands just as he's about to silence the sobbing girl. He swore that he didn't threw it backwards or dropped it. That rarely happens to him. Suddenly, he spotted his bat literally stuck on a wall with a sword with dark green feathers on both sides piercing the bat. Now the thief wanted to know who did this in the first place. He'll get that little bastard for doing this!

"My god, you're just as stupid as ever, Li."

Noticing that familiar voice, Li quickly turned around to see who's behind him, and he spotted two members of the Babylon Rogues standing at the front door. One of them was a large gray albatross named Storm, wearing black pants and a dark blue hoodie. The second one was the leader of the group: Jet the Hawk. How can Li tell? One, his bright green feathers. Two, light blue eyes that seems innocent but are deadly in reality when he glares at anyone. And three, he had his signature weapons out: the Bashosen. Harmless at first due to them looking like banana palm fans, but turns into twin swords when Jet has spin them at least once.

Even though the Babylon Rogues were a group of thieves, Li had to keep his guard up as they're known to be deadly despite the small amount of members it has. Three if he can recall. One of the members that isn't here with them was their engineer: Wave the Swallow. But she's the least of Li's concerns right now. He has to deal with these two rogues. Not to mention their enemies.

Yep. The Babylon Rogues are one of The Black Claws' enemies for a good reason. The legendary thieves have the same goal as the terrorizing gang: to obtain all seven Chaos Emeralds. Li doesn't know why they want them in the first place, but anyone who has the same goal as The Black Claws will go down no matter what it takes. And so far, they're one of the two teams that's on top of The Black Claws' list; the other one being Team Dark.

"Well, it looks like we meet again, Babylon Rogues," says Li as he walked towards the two birds while grabbing his pocket knife out of his back pocket. "Happy to see me?"

"Funny. That's the question I'm suppose to ask you," Jet replied back to the wolf.

"Oh. And why's that?"

"Because we wanted to see how you're feeling before we kick your dirty ass."

"For what reason?"

No words were needed to respond back to Li's question. Instead, Storm punched Li in the stomach hard, slowly falling to the floor with his hands covering it.

"For almost killing a family just to steal something, you bastard," Storm responded, kicking the thief in the back.

"And that 'something' is a Chaos Emerald. Am I right?" Jet questioned the injured wolf while pulling out his sword from the wall, along with the bat.

"Yeah, you're right, parrot," Li replied back, reveling a small jewelry chest he's hiding on the back of his gray hoodie. "But I'm going to get away with this Emerald."

"How? Storm bruised you up, so there's no chance of escaping us now, buddy. So hand it-" But Jet wasn't able to finish his sentence as Li swing his knife towards the hawk. Luckily, the knife didn't cause any major bleeding from his skin, but it was able to tear the sleeve of his dark green jacket and a small part of his arm with a little bit of blood oozing out. "Ow! Why you...!"

"Stupid birds!" Li harshly commented to the two Babylon Rogues before he pulled out a small bottle of what appears to be cologne and sprayed it all over his body. After a few sprays, Li no longer felt the pain from his stomach and back, and is able to be get off the floor and exit through the windows with a relaxed smile on his face because the gray bird is not chasing him. Storm is more worried about his leader than Li as of now.

"Boss!" Storm ran towards his leader, his eyes wide in horror as he witnessed what the Black Claw member did to his leader. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks for asking," said Jet, covering up his small wound. "But right now, we need to see if this family is going to be okay."

"Huh? Shouldn't we be chasing Li?"

"Let **them** handle him. I'm sure they'll catch the little pup with no problem."

"You sure?" Storm asked Jet, not having total confidence on what Jet is saying.

"Trust me." Jet let out a small smile before walking towards the curled up little girl, hands covering up her soaked eyes while muttering "Mommy, daddy" multiple times. Jet personally hates to see anyone cry as they cry for the most dumbest reasons (like when they lost something that can be easily replaced or seeing their favorite team lose) and won't bother to make them stop crying, but when it comes to crying for a lost one or when things feel like they're impossible to reach, that's when Jet will try his best (emphasis on try) to stop them from crying without sounding all cheesy.

Like now as he knelt down to the little girl and softly patted her head a few times before she stopped sobbing and looked up to see his face, along with Storm's as he caught up with his leader.

"W... Who are you? Heroes?" the little fox girl guessed.

As much as Jet wanted to give her a complement for saying 'hero', he let his hand go away from the little girl's head and answered, "We're not exactly heroes. Let's just say we're..." He let out a small pause to think about what to say to the little girl. Finally, he came out with the right words and said, "We're just ordinary people who happened to be around here and witness this scene."

_And by ordinary people, I mean thieves, _Jet thought after what he said.

"But you guys are heroes!" the little girl exclaimed. "Anyone who can stand up to a mean thief like him deserves to be called heroes!"

"Seriously?" Jet wondered.

"Yeah!"

"Even if we didn't catch him?" Storm added another question.

"Totally! As long as my parents and I are safe, then I'm happy!"

"Well, are they?"

Jet face-palmed himself as he forget to check the little girl's parents bodies, clothes and fur covered in red liquid. He prayed to god that the two are alive or the good mood would be ruined if they're dead, leaving the little girl with no one to take care of unless some of her neighbors were willing to take care of her. Jet placed two fingers on the mother's neck to see if he can feel any pulse from her. He thought she was dead when he didn't feel anything from his fingers... Until a few seconds later where he felt a small tingle from them. Sure, it was weak, but at least she's alive. Well, barely at least. After checking the little girl's mother's pulse, Jet quickly went to the father if he has any pulse, and the results were the same as the mother.

Jet gave a thumbs up to both Storm and the little girl, signaling them that the parents are going to be alright once help arrives. And 'help' in this type of situation would mean the ambulance would come once he calls 911. And while he's dialing 911, Jet wonders if Li would be caught by **them**. Especially that one member he really trusts more than Wave and Storm combined.

* * *

~Somewhere in the streets of Central City~

_Finally! I'm home free! _Li cheered in his thoughts as he turned to the corner to take a short break after running for three minutes straight. He sat down on the ground and pulled out the bottle from his jacket pocket. _And thank god I brought this bottle with me._

The object Li used earlier was actually some type of spray that was made just recently. It heals any type of injury in an instant, major and minor, and it's a standard item for a Black Claw member to have besides a weapon of their choice. If he didn't have that spray with him, then he'd end up having more scars in his body, and he didn't want any more scars ever since that humiliating memory eight years ago. Yes, that memory where one of the members of Team Chaotix (he believed it was the crocodile) injured his good leg and almost ended up being crippled. Luckily, the gang doctor took care of the injury for Li, though it still hurts at times whenever he kicks or lands at a large gap. Other than that, he's capable of kicking ass and stealing from the worthless people. Especially those who has a Chaos Emerald.

Hopefully, the small jewelry chest he stole from that pathetic family has the Chaos Emerald. If not, then he can take whatever he feels that's worth tons of money. Maybe he can find some high quality gold in that chest.

However, Li didn't get the chance to take a small peak of that chest when a trash can came flying towards him out of nowhere. Li quickly got off the ground and dashed out of the way to avoid getting hit by the large metal can. He sighed in relief as the can ended up hitting a tower of boxes, tumbling as the can hit them.

"Thank god," Li said, leaning against the brick wall.

"Don't get too cocky now, pup." The voice came from above, and Li lifted his head up to see who it was. Unfortunately, he didn't get to look long enough when he spotted a figure landing in front of him and could only cover his mouth as he took a glance at the other member of the Babylon Rogues: Wave.

The only reason he knew it was Wave is that she's wearing her signature red orb necklace. Sure, she looked different in terms of attire, wearing a black top that covers at least half of her stomach, dark denim capri pants and brown combat boots, but she still wears her necklace regardless of what outfit she's wearing. And that necklace is one of the two things that make Wave noticeable to others. The other thing...

"Give me that small chest or I'll literally give you the cold shoulder," Wave threatened Li, her hands full of ice; the second thing people like Li recognizes in an instant.

Wave isn't the only one in the Babylon Rogues to have a special power. At least every member has a power they've possessed ever since they were young. Wave has the power to control ice and can create clones of either herself or her teammates, Storm possessed electricity and resist it better than Jet and Wave, while Jet has control of the winds and can move at quick speeds. These special powers always came in handy in any situation they come across.

Like now with Wave ready to freeze Li if he doesn't give the small chest to her.

"Like I said, give it to me. Now!" Wave repeated her shortened threat to the brown wolf.

"Yeah, right!" Li refused. "I'd rather freeze to death than give this treasure chest to a dumb bitch like you!"

"Better watch what you say, puppy."

"Like it matters."

"It does to me," a new voice with an Australian accent commented.

Li didn't know who that voice belonged to since he never heard it until now. He thought it would be a citizen who just happened to witness this event, but he leaned towards the left to see the owner of that voice: a female auburn raccoon with long downward pigtails wearing a light green tank top with a black leather jacket, dark denim shorts that are slightly ripped, and black spiked heeled boots. From the way she dressed, Li guessed this girl was around in her mid-teens, maybe 15 or 16 years old. There's no way a 10 or 11 year old would dress like this. But that's the least of Li's worries.

Right now, he should be worried that this girl formed a bow and arrow made out of water, and she currently has it aimed on his head, ready to shoot him at any time.

"Just... Just who are you anyway?" Li demanded.

"Your worst nightmare and a member of the Babylon Rogues: Marine the Raccoon," she informed the brown wolf.

_Did she say she was a member of... What?! How come nobody told me about it?! _Li is totally lost on what's going on. He'd never heard about a fourth member of the Babylon Rogues. Why? Maybe because the members of the Black Claws didn't want to fess up that they've been beaten by a teenage girl with water powers. That could be it.

"Seriously?!" Li exclaimed in surprise, not believing what she's saying.

"Hell yes," she answered to Li. "Been with them for 8 years."

"Then how come I've never-"

"Heard of me?" Marine completed Li's sentence for him. "Let's just say that I'm dangerous that people can't describe me very well once I beat the crap out of them. Just like what I'm going to do to you right now if you don't hand me that treasure chest."

"Never, you little pre-teen brat."

After making that insult to the raccoon, Marine charged her aqua arrow to full power before letting it go and drenched Li all over his body. Shortly after, she kicked him hard on 'that' spot, making him go down on the ground slowly while covering 'that' area with both of his hands.

"What the hell was that for, bitch?" Li demanded before he got another kick from her, this time on the stomach. But unlike before, this one hurt a lot due to the heel from Marine's boot.

"For not only calling me and Wave 'bitches' but for calling me a pre-teen," Marine told Li. "I'm 15 years old if you wanted to know."

"Really?"

"Yep. And if you don't want to cry for your mommy, then just give me the jewelry chest and I won't hurt you anymore. Got it, dumb puppy?!"

Li could have said 'No' to the raccoon, but he didn't want to risk getting injured by her. Even if he used the spray, Marine will beat him up multiple times and Li would have to keep using the spray until it's empty. He didn't want that situation to happen! Having no choice at this point, Li tossed the small white jewelry chest to Marine before he slowly got up from the ground and started to limp away from the scene, leaving the two Babylon girls alone.

"Thank god it's over," Marine sighed in relief as she wiped some sweat from her forehead.

"Yeah," Wave agreed with the raccoon. "But before we get back to where the others are, let's check to see if there's a Chaos Emerald in that chest."

"Sure thing."

_Hope this work was worth it, _Marine thought with a smile as she took off the lid from the chest. However, that smile faded away when she found out that...

"Just a few fake jewelry and a mood ring," Marine muttered in disappointment.

Oh, well. At least Li didn't get away with this without getting a beating he deserved.

"Well, we might as well return it to the family. Those small things might mean something to them," Wave suggested as she started to dial Jet on her phone.

"Alright," Marine agreed with Wave's plan. And while Wave was waiting for Jet to answer, Marine muttered to herself, "And here I thought we'd get a Chaos Emerald for sure."

* * *

~Next Day: Babylon Airship (10:30 A.M)~

Listening to her music while reading her book on her light blue sheet bed, Marine thought about what happened last night. All that tracking for the Black Claw member for nothing! Another disappointment. This is the 4th time that has happened to her this month, all of them involving with stopping the Black Claws from stealing an artifact and injuring, or killing, innocent people. And this didn't happen this month, but from the eight years she has joined the Babylon Rogues.

Before she joined the Babylon Rogues, Marine was just an ordinary girl with a rash mind but a hyperactive imagination, an amazing ability to control water, and had huge dreams of traveling across the world by sea. She was raised by two people who cared for her like she was their little sister, and she would always teased these two, thinking they'd become a cute couple and would always refuse that theory. However, those days shattered when a couple of members of the Black Claws attacked the three during their trip to the beach, demanding them to hand over a couple of objects that were similar to the Chaos Emeralds. The two refused and started to attack them while they told Marine the last words she has heard from them.

_**"Run! Just run until you're safe!"**_

She did as what her two sibling figures did, running her little feet until she thought any members of the Black Claws weren't after her. Sounded easy on paper, but in reality, not so much as it was raining hard, causing her hair to cover up her eyes due to the harsh winds and made her slip to the wet sand. But that didn't matter to Marine as she didn't see any of the members following her. All she wanted was for someone to be with her as she thought the two people she loved were gone for good. Just anyone would do as long as it's not the Black Claws. She'd be okay if a homeless person found her!

And she got her wish when she spotted Wave on her Extreme Gear, going through the beach with a bag of some stuff but she stopped as she saw Marine on the ground, ready to cry at any minute. Wave knew she isn't okay and wanted to know what happened to the poor raccoon. Normally, she didn't care about a little kid crying as she knew the parents would come looking for them anyway, but for Marine, she cared as Marine had nobody to look for her. Hell, she didn't have any parents looking for her as they've died a month after she was born from a shipwreck! Feeling bad for her losing her home and her sibling figures (though they might be alive), Wave took her back at the Babylon Airship to see if Jet would let her stay and join the Babylon Rogues. Jet refused at first, but when Wave explained Marine's situation in only a minute, Jet said these exact words.

_**"You know what? I'll let her stay and be part of the Babylon Rogues. Nobody deserves to be alone after going through hell like that."**_

Ever since that day, Marine became an official member of the Babylon Rogues. But she didn't start off as a great fighter/thief at first. Like with some people starting off new, Marine screwed up on the various of lessons the three members taught her. While training on how to ride an Extreme Gear properly with Jet, she ended up going in reverse and fell down on the ground while trying to do a trick. Her fighting skills back then sucked, even with her powers, she sprinted away from the battlefield after receiving a light punch from Storm. The only thing she did decently back then was learning the parts of the Extreme Gear and how to repair it with Wave. Sure, she was electrocuted a few times, but other then that, Marine did fine with no problems. Not to mention she knew how to handle her powers very well from her as ice and water are similar in some ways.

While training with the three members, Marine started to see them as sibling figures, especially Wave and Jet. Even though Wave is about eleven-years older than Marine, the two get along very well and go outside either to race each other or to go sight seeing random places. Jet is twenty-two years old, about the same age as her previous sibling figures if they were alive today, and he lets Marine out a lot without Wave as he wants the raccoon to feel freedom alone for a short time. Along with giving her a taste of some freedom, he shares her desire to travel the whole world and pulling pranks on each other, or Wave and Storm.

But even after all those eight years spending time with the three thieves, Marine really wants to see her original sibling figures again to show them how strong she has gotten over the eight years. But the problem is that she wonders where they are. And if she has all seven Chaos Emeralds, then she can figure out if they're alive or not. That's why she's so desperate in finding them as fast as she can. And so far, no luck. She was close on getting one three months ago, but it ended up falling to the sewers. Even though Marine lost the Emerald, Wave told her she can create a replica of it just in case the same emerald appears in some type of high-security system place.

Hopefully, Marine wonders if that day will come.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Hey, Marine! Open the door!"

Noticing that the voice was Wave, Marine removed her headphones and placed her bookmark on the page she was reading before running out of bed and opened the door to see the purple swallow and the green hawk at the front door, with the former holding a gift wrapped in light blue wrapping paper and white ribbons while the latter is holding out a yellow and blue card. Marine wondered why these two were carrying these things and why Storm isn't with them. Hmm... A neatly wrapped gift and a card can equal...

"What is it, guys? Is it for something special?" Marine guessed.

"Yes," both of them said, with Jet having an annoyed tone.

"More specifically, it's something special for you," Wave added, now entering Marine's room.

"Huh?"

"Oh my god. It's your birthday gifts for crying out loud!" Jet blurted out, waving his arms all over the place. "We kind of forgot to give you birthday gifts last week, so we decided to give them to you now. You know what say. Better late than never."

"Right."

That explains it. Marine remembered Storm giving her a new pair of fingerless gloves as her last ones were starting to get ripped, and Jet and Wave promised her that they'll give her something before the end of September during her birthday last week. Well, at least they weren't too late.

"And since you were disappointed about yesterday's events, we thought these can cheer you up a little bit," Wave continued, handing Marine her gift. "Go ahead. Open it."

Marine ripped the wrapping paper into shreds in less than ten seconds, not even undoing the ribbon first. A small box was revealed to be hidden underneath the wrapper and Marine opened it to find a silver chained necklace with a blue orb decorated with three studs in different colors, purple, silver-gray, and green. Marine can't help herself but to squeal out loudly as she knew what kind of necklace Wave made for her: a necklace that works like Wave's. The red-orb necklace is actually a computer in disguise, made for tons of things such as hacking into computers and storing important data. And Marine now has it in her own style!

"Oh my god! Thank you, Wave! This is amazing!" Marine praised Wave's gift.

"No problem," Wave replied back. "I know how much you'd admired my necklace ever since we met, and I wanted to make one just for you once you've grown to become a stronger person."

"And that time is now?"

"Yep. You deserve it, Marine."

"Oh, wow. I know I've already said it, but I'll say it once more. Thanks, Wave! This is a really great gift!"

"Glad to hear that," Wave smiled as she turned to Jet. "Let's hope short-head can give you a present that can equal to mine."

"Wave! Don't call me short-head!" Jet yelled to Wave. He really hates that name because it reminded him how short he was back when he was 14. Even though he's grown to be about 4 feet tall (finally taller than Wave by one inch), Wave keeps calling him 'short-head' as he's still short-tempered even after eight years.

"Can't help myself, short-head. It's so much fun to say."

"Yeah," Jet sarcastically singed as he witnessed Wave leaving the room laughing. Once Wave left Marine's room, Jet cleared his throat a few times and said, "Alright, Marine. I know Wave worked hard on your gift, and let me tell you that I put enough thought about your gift."

"Let me guess. Is it a birthday card that contains a gift card to Barnes & Nobles?"

"No. Wave gave that to you last year."

"Oh. Then what is it?"

Jet handed the card to Marine and said, "Open the card and see for yourself."

Marine did what Jet ordered her to do, and the first things she spotted on the card was a note written by Jet. She knew that as his handwriting is slightly messy but clear enough for her to read. The message reads:

_Marine,_

_ I can't believe you're already fifteen years old! For a moment, I thought you were the small seven-year-old back then, but you've grown a lot. And I don't mean physically. I also meant you've grown to be more brave, confident, and prepared to face any challenges that faces you everyday. Those little things made me trust you a lot, which brings me to your birthday gift._

_ To me, the best gift anyone can have in this world is freedom. And you know I let you out whenever I give you permission, but as of today, you can go out as long as you want without my permission as I trust you long enough to return back to the airship without any trouble._

_ And yes, I promise I won't tell Wave all about it. Just say I gave you a gift card to Barnes & Nobles. Okay?_

_From,_

_Jet the Hawk (A.K.A The Legendary Wind Master)_

Marine couldn't believe what she has read. She can't believe that Jet is letting her do this! Sure, she imagined it one day, but she never thought it would come today! This totally equals to Wave's gift!

"A...Are you serious about it?" Marine wondered.

"Yeah," Jet nodded his head. "I mean, everybody needs some fun once in a while, and I haven't seen you doing that for two weeks."

"Oh, yeah. Chaos Emerald hunting."

"So, just go outside and have some fun out there, but don't get into too much trouble with any high authorities. Got it?"

Marine nodded her head as she put on her brown sneakers and grabbed her aqua Extreme Gear board before opening her window and jumping out of her room, riding her Extreme Gear down to where people are enjoying their warm morning.

This totally makes up for the events that happened yesterday. And Jet is right. Even though she's fighting against god wannabes (The Black Claws), she should let that go and have the time of her life. Like now.

* * *

**_I keep on fighting against god_**

**_In such a dirty, cruel place_**

_My left arm has been blow off_

_And my wings have been teared off_

**_I keep on fighting against god_**

**_In such a dirty, cruel place_**

_My right arm is full of scars_

_And I've devoted everything_

_-"Dancer in the Dark" by Luka Megurine_

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry it took so long to write this chapter, but here's our female protagonist of our story: Marine! And oh, she's with the Babylon Rogues... Now that we met the two protagonists and the teams they're with, do you think there's going to be some conflicts going on between them?**

** Well, you might as well wait next chapter as Charmy and Marine gets to meet each other for the first time! Ooh!**

**If you like this chapter, please leave a review if you like! I accept all reviews!**

**Later! ;D**


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